Stephen A. Elop
Analyst · Nomura
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us today for the Q1 2012 earnings call. We were clearly disappointed with our performance in Q1 2012. It reflects both the transition that Nokia is currently undergoing as well as the increase in competitive pressures within our industry. I would like to take some time to put these results into context. In February 2011, we identified shifts in our industry and internal challenges at Nokia that were contributing to the deteriorating conditions and prospects for our company. Most notably, we described how the mobile industry shifted from a battle of devices to a war of ecosystems. In response, we implemented a series of strategic changes and embarked on a major transformation. This included 5 distinct aspects of our new strategy. First, we entered into a comprehensive partnership with Microsoft to improve the competitiveness of our smartphones and to differentiate against Android and Apple. With this unique partnership, we gained advantages and have for instance received continued support from Microsoft in the form of go-to-market and R&D cooperation that this year alone will total USD $1 billion. We are pleased with the rate at which we have turned the Microsoft partnership from strategy to implementation. We have launched 4 Lumia devices ahead of schedule to encouraging awards and popular acclaim. Doubling the number of Lumia devices sold quarter-on-quarter is a respectable pace. However, the sales results have been mixed. We exceeded expectations in markets like the United States, but establishing momentum in certain markets, including the United Kingdom, has been more challenging. Our initial foray into the United States was with the Lumia 710 at T-Mobile U.S.A. Together with T-Mobile, the retail execution of this product was well done, and we exceeded our sales expectations. Now, we are working very closely with AT&T to replicate that success on a larger scale with the Lumia 900. To date, we are exceeding our and AT&T's expectations. At retail, teams are responding quickly to the stock-outs. Additionally, after launching the Lumia 900, the device became the best-selling and best-rated product on Amazon.com in the United States. As part of our efforts with Microsoft, we are focused on attracting developers to the ecosystem. This is also an area where we have exceeded our expectations. Most notably, we will soon have more than 2/3 of the top 100 applications from competing ecosystems on the Windows Phone marketplace, and that continues to grow. Additionally, through developer evangelism, training, products seeding and a variety of tactics, the rate of Windows Phone application development is accelerating. Today, we have more than 80,000 apps across 54 markets and in 23 languages. We expect this number will accelerate as Microsoft introduces Windows 8 for PCs and tablets and the next versions of Windows Phone. The second aspect of our strategy is to increase our investment in connecting the next billion people to the Internet through our Mobile Phones business unit. The lower-priced tiers of our industry are undergoing a structural change. That is, feature phones are increasingly being pushed down by smartphones. And yet the market opportunity for low-priced devices remains a very lucrative business opportunity. Therefore, it is the mission of the Mobile Phones unit to capture this opportunity. In the area of Mobile Phones, we continue to renew our Series 40 portfolio. For example, we recognized the need for dual SIM and delivered 8 dual SIM devices over the past year. We delivered consumers more aspirational designs and experiences through 7 new Asha products. The Net Promoter Scores for some Asha devices are the highest we've had for Mobile Phones products. We acquired Smarterphone, a Norwegian company that brings new user interface technology and expertise to Nokia. We've increased download rates from feature phones to more than 4 million a day by improving store access and payment schemes and adding new apps like Whatsapp, Foursquare and EA. We released a new version of Nokia Life, which delivers education, health, agriculture and entertainment services via SMS. And we delivered a new proxy browser, and we're now bringing the browser and web apps down to super low-end devices. However, as we highlighted last week, there are still areas where our future phone portfolio is at a competitive disadvantage. We plan to address some of these issues in Q2. That being said, the structural shift from feature phones towards low-priced smartphones is a challenge. Our increased investments in Mobile Phones R&D are intended to address these challenges. We deliberately speak very little about the third pillar of our strategy, future disruptions. We are identifying ways to challenge the shortcomings of today's experiences. We are doing works -- work in areas like materials, user experiences, power management and even the very nature of what will, in the future, constitute an ecosystem. Relative to our strategy, we also talked about a fourth area: the importance of differentiation. This includes the Windows Phone ecosystem, but it also includes our distinctive designs, which are breaking through. We have also begun to demonstrate the potential for photography and optics to play an important role in differentiation. The Nokia 808 PureView is a generational disruption in photography. And yet an area of potentially the greatest differentiation lies in Location & Commerce. We are expanding beyond the licensing of mapped data and provisioning of navigation services. We are developing the leading horizontal platform for location-aware experiences. We also are focused on new revenue opportunities from new experiences from advertising and licensing opportunities and providing a source of differentiation for Nokia devices. And finally, the fifth aspect of our strategy is to change the way we work. We are establishing a clear sense of urgency and increase in the clock speed of our company. Last week's news highlights that there is still a lot of improvement ahead so that we can lead and not react to the competitive dynamics in the market. In totality, the intent of the strategy is to reaffirm Nokia's position of strength in the mobile industry and to deliver superior financial results to our shareholders. With that assessment of our progress against our new strategy, we also recognize that our industry continues to evolve. Relative to our assessment in February 2011, there are many changes in and around, for example, the Android ecosystem. For example, there's the proliferation of lower-priced Android devices, which is happening very quickly. There is a rise of well-funded, branded Chinese manufacturers. Companies like Amazon are fragmenting the Android ecosystem. Google is planning to acquire Motorola mobility. Samsung has emerged as the strongest Android OEM, and some believe they are using their strength to put pressure on other price segments. At the same time, there's a shift in the competition within the feature phone space. There is serious consolidation, and historical players are decreasing their presence. And new Chinese micro vendors and ZTE and Huawei are aggressively moving to the highly congested and competitive low-end Android space. Also relative to our assessment in February 2011, market conditions in China have changed and present a serious challenge to us. In the past, distribution of mobile devices in China was primarily through networks of distributors and resellers. However, operators are now rapidly driving bundled purchases of devices and data plans all at price points designed to increase the number of 3G data subscribers. This is happening at price points and configurations where we need to increase our competitiveness. And finally, relative to February 2011, we have learned about the challenges to break through with the third ecosystem. Because of the acceleration of Android and the strength of Apple, we have work to do to break through to consumers with an alternative point of view. For example, we are educating and motivating retail sales associates to champion our products. Both T-Mobile U.S. and AT&T are good examples of where we are beginning to break through. Thus, factoring in progress we have made on our new strategy, plus the new challenges we face in this dynamic market, we are assessing our next steps. In the near term, we believe that we are in the first rounds of this war of ecosystems. And the changes in the environment reaffirm our belief in and commitment to Windows Phone. We are, however, taking near-term action to increase the trajectory of Lumia sales. We will pursue step-function changes through 4 distinct initiatives. First, during Q2, we are shipping the Lumia 900 as our new hero device and the Lumia 610 as the lowest-priced Lumia device. We are bringing these devices to more than 30 countries around the world, so the first emphasis is on broadening the portfolio. Second, Q2 is the first quarter where we will have full sales of Lumia in major markets, like Brazil and Mexico, and during which we will extend our market reach with major customers like AT&T and China Telecom. We aim to continue our geographic expansion into new markets throughout Eastern Europe and across Asia. Third. We are quickly addressing some of the most highly requested feature requirements coming from our consumers through accelerated engineering with Microsoft. This includes: Wi-Fi hotspot tethering capabilities; Vcard sending and receiving, which turns out to be the most often requested capability from existing Symbian users; data voice and messaging tracking capability for cost control; panorama image capabilities that stitch together multiple images to create a great photographic experience; and the introduction of a DLNA client for television connectivity. And the fourth change is that we are immediately adjusting our Lumia go-to-market activities. This includes introducing a second wave of Lumia advertising, which is more focused on the key selling propositions and differentiators. We also plan to increase our overall investment in Lumia advertising and expand the number of in-market activities that have worked well, like the Smoked by Windows Phone campaign in the U.S. and the satisfaction guaranteed program in India. Plus, we'll continue to invest in exclusive third-party applications for Lumia. In Mobile Phones, we are taking 4 near-term actions. First, you will see products that deliberately address some of the competitive challenges that we have in the feature phones segment. Second, we are piloting new approaches to achieve a lower-cost supply chain while also working with suppliers to improve our time-to-market. Third, we plan to continue to drive down to new price points for devices with rich Internet experiences by bringing our proxy browser and web app support down to the super low end of our portfolio. And fourth, we are enhancing our Mobile Phones social networking support. For example, by adding support for Arabic Facebook and improving Twitter integration. Relative to our Location & Commerce business, our focus is shifting from establishing the new platform to increasing its ability to generate value. Some of this work is becoming apparent with our new applications, including Augmented Reality. And we're pursuing more partnerships, such as our recent announcement with Groupon. And yet, even with these near-term changes, the market conditions and our own situation make it necessary for us to pursue more substantial changes. We estimate that we have delivered approximately EUR 700 million of run rate savings against the more than EUR 1 billion cost savings target in Devices & Services. We plan to accelerate and substantially deepen our cost savings. Our communications to you and other stakeholders around the new target will coincide with the decisions necessary to focus our strategy. We are acting with urgency, and we will share these details with you as quickly as possible. We are assessing the specific steps we plan to take, and it is clear that there are certain things that we will pursue with urgency. We are further accelerating our efforts to compete effectively in the low end of smartphones. We are leveraging our feature phone asset to drive improved business results. We're improving our Lumia go-to-market strategies, including how we increase focus on specific markets and user segments. We are emphasizing sustainable competitive advantage in areas like design and where Nokia has intellectual property advantages, like optics and photography. We'll leverage the disruptive opportunity ahead with Windows 8 and believe the associated positive halo effect will raise the profile of Windows Phone. We're prioritizing investments and opportunities for the next industry disruptions. We plan to identify noncore assets and aim to dispose of them appropriately. And we will focus on making any necessary changes to our organization, structure or team that would be complementary to our renewed focus. At the same time that we are modifying the operating model for the company, our need to harvest and preserve cash remains paramount. While Timo will go into more detail on our cash position, I wanted to note that with EUR 9.8 billion of gross cash and EUR 4.9 billion of net cash, we have strong liquidity and a strong capital structure, which will help us move through this transition. As you will have already noticed from our release today, Colin Giles, our Executive Vice President of Sales, has decided to leave the company to be closer to his family. With Collin's departure, we will reduce a layer of sales management to ensure greater focus in providing senior leaders greater visibility in the market dynamics. Colin's leadership has been very valuable as we shifted Nokia's strategy, and we truly appreciate Colin's commitment and many, many contributions to Nokia over the years. In summary, we are now beginning through a significant company transition within an industry that continues to evolve and shift. Over the last year, we have made progress against our new strategy, but we face challenges as we move forward. We recognize what these challenges are, and we are intensely focused on responding urgently, so we can accelerate our success and create value for our shareholders. Timo, I'll turn it over to you.